


Bluebeard

by Iyliss



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gen, mentions of death (through the tale), siblings bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 03:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15721260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iyliss/pseuds/Iyliss
Summary: When they were little kid, Mihael and Thomas were allowed to go anywhere in the old family house, except for that one old attic. But now that they are grown up, and have nothing better to do, they can open the forbidden door...





	Bluebeard

"Checkmate !"

Thomas wasn't even looking at the chessboard by this point. He was lying on the sofa, eyes at the ceiling, not even focused on it. He already knew all the little details of the old timbers by heart.  
He had spent the last few days on this same sofa, in the same position and doing whatever he and Mihael could find to do in order to pass through the long summer afternoons. It was too hot to start an actual duel outside and they had fallen back to simpler games. They had tried every known game with the classic cards, invented some, until they had discovered a chess board. Mihael had just won the 23rd game.

"Are you alright, big brother ?" 

Thomas had closed his eyes and hadn't moved a bit. He snorted the most negative way he could. These holidays felt like a death sentence. A death by boredom.  
When he was a kid, him, his brothers and his dad used to spend every summer at the Arclights' old family house in the countryside. After so many years, he was once again here. The house hadn’t changed at all, but maybe it had become a bit smaller. Or maybe he had just grown up too much.

"It don't understand."

"What ?" Mihael was putting the pieces back in the box, slowly and carefully. It was just another way to make time pass faster.

"How it got so... boring ! Remember when we were young ? This damn house was so interesting! We played hide and seek and told ourselves ghost stories about the old forbidden attic and built cabins in trees and looked for old treasures in the garden... "

"Oh you remember? How Chris kept telling us this tale to prevent us from finding the key of the old attic ? I ended up believing it !"

Back then, Thomas hated not to know what was behind the small door upstairs. His brother always answered his questions the vaguest way possible, then proceeded to tell him how he should never try to open it. He had told him this tale about a girl disobeying her husband and opening a door he told her not too, just because she was bored.

"Bluebeard huh? To be honest, at this point, I'd love to find dead bodies in the attic. T’would bring a bit of fun in this hell of a holiday. "

"Well we still don't know. Maybe there are indeed corpses... "

Thomas suddenly rose up. He looked at his brother in his eyes, and Mihael immediately understood too.  
Yes, they didn't know. But they weren't little kids telling themselves scary stories in their bed anymore. Chris and their dad were out in the garden, probably reading. And after all, why wouldn't they be allowed to visit the attic ? The very idea of opening that door felt like a dream.

The two left their seat, and searched the whole house. After a good few hours, they were in front of the attic door, with a bunch of old, less old and older keys in the hands. They tried each of them. Finally, one entered the rusty locker.  
Thomas was the one holding it, and he took it back before opening the door to look at it. It was a small, golden key.

"It's just like in the tale... " whispered Mihael. His brother could hear his fear in his voice, but also a touch of excitement.

Thomas put back the key in the locker and turned it once. Twice. The third time, he heard the satisfying noise of the opening door. He hadn't noticed that his smile had increased with each turn, and he had now the most delighted – and childish – face.  
He pulled the door handle and opened the room. He felt Mihael grabbing his back, like when they were little kids walking in the dark night woods to scare themselves. He didn't stop him.

It was pitch black. They searched for a switch near the door, on both sides, but the one they found didn't work. Both felt a bit of disappointment. 

"Maybe we could go find a lamp or some kind of candle…, " started Mihael before Thomas interrupted him. 

"There must be a window on the other side. " He entered the room, and his brother grabbed his arm back just in time before he disappeared in the darkness.

They couldn't see a thing before their feet. They were walking slowly and carefully, sometimes stopped by something they could barely see the shape of. The floor was creaking with each step. They were counting each one, in fear to hear one sound that shouldn’t have been heard. Around the middle of the room, Mihael stopped and held his brother tighter.  
" I... I... felt something on my leg... " He kneeled a few seconds. " Yes... it's a dress, I’m sure it's just a dress... "

"Don't tell me you really think there's dead women here !" Thomas shouted, just loud enough to convince himself that he wasn't a bit scared as well. Mihael didn't answer, and the silence was even scarier. 

"And anyway... can you imagine Chris with a beard ? "

This time, it was easy to hear the fear in Thomas' voice. But the two shared for a second the absurd image of their handsome brother with the bearish beard the man from the tale was usually depicted with. They laughed together for a good few minutes, and all fear left them.  
After a few more steps, Thomas touched the windows' locker and opened it, the shutters letting out a storm of dust. It took him and Mihael a good few minutes to stop coughing and be able to see clearly.

Mihael reached the window. Down in the garden, there was Christopher reading. He called him, and he rose his head from his book.

"Mihael ? You're in the old attic ? Is Thomas with you ?"

" Yes and yes ! Why ?"

"Tell him not to do anything stupid. And to break nothing. "

Thomas joined his brother at the windowsill and shouted, " Shut up, I’m not a kid ! " and closed the windows. He then turned to Mihael with a smile. " Now, let's see why this room has to be so special and forbidden."

They turned around. The day light from the window was warmly lighting up the room even in the deepest corners. There was no corpses in sight. Instead, there was... a lot of things. Chests, boxes, old furnitures and things they could only guess the use of. And dust, dust everywhere. The brothers would lie saying they weren't expecting something spooky at least a little bit. But this, this was filling all their expectations.There was just so much to discover.

" More like Ali baba... " said Thomas, fascinated.  
He didn't know where to start, but Mihael did. He was already sitting near a giant chest, opened, almost completely covered by a huge, white and smooth dress.

"It was a wedding dress, look !"

Mihael took both sleeves and stood up. It was indeed a wedding dress, a big, gorgeous and old one. All this time left here had turned the fabric greyish but it was still beautiful. Thomas joined Mihael ; he handed him the dress to look inside the chest. There was even more fabric, probably some kind of veil, and he took it all out. At the bottom, he found an old sepia picture, the memory of a century-old wedding. He showed it to his brother.

"I think it was one of our great grandmother...We should ask dad about it. "

" If you want. I personally don't really care. " Thomas put the dress back in the chest. " Why would you even buy something so expensive and only wear it once ? "

Mihael carefuly folded the dress, put it back, and kept the photo in his pocket. His brother was already in the middle other boxes, searching for anything interesting in it; so he went to another side of the room and opened the doors of a broken wardrobe. How could such a huge thing even end up here? It was bigger than the door!

Some time passed in silence, both brothers were focused on their own excavation. This time, it's Thomas who uttered in joy, "Mihael ! Look what I found ! "  
He joined him. Thomas was holding a huge and old gun that looked like it was a pirate's. Built in heavy wood, there was golden decorations and engravings all around. After looking at it for some time, Thomas started holding it properly.

" Maybe you shouldn't hold it like this, big brother... It might be dangerous. " 

" Come on it's been there since what...? 200 years ? Whatever powder’s left in it is probably too moldy to work anyway. "

He played with the gun, pulling the hammer. "Hey ! Ill try ! " and, before Mihael could stop him, the loud noise of the shot had exploded in the whole house. He could see his brother's hands shaking a bit, and both of them were unable to do anything for a good few minutes. What brought them back to reality was Christopher's voice from down the garden.

"What's happening ?! Are you alright ?! "

They couldn't answer. When they finally managed to move a bit, their brother was already climbing the stairs. Thomas quickly handed Mihael the gun with the most begging look. They silently bargained while Christopher was approaching. When he entered the room, he shouted :

"Thomas! What have you done again... " 

He had noticed Mihael was the one holding the gun. The younger brother took his most innocent voice.

"I’m so sorry big brother ! I found it and thought it was harmless and wanted to try it... and I didn't think it would.... I'm sorry, I am so so sorry... "

Christopher calmed down. He came to them, took the gun and looked at it a few seconds.

"It's alright, there's no bullet in it. You wouldn't have harmed anyone anyway. Put it back, and be careful next time you find a weapon, okay ? "

Mihael nodded. His brother kindly smiled and left. When his footstep in the stairs stopped, his other brother smiled too.

"Thank god...Mihael, he would have killed me. "

" It's... it's okay. But don't do that again. I thought I would die of fright. "

" Yeah...yeah... oh since you saved me, I'll show you another thing I found ! "

He took him to another side of the room, with travel chests. He opened one, took in it an old album, and handed it to Mihael. He opened it, to discover pages of black and white photos of travels. South Africa, Egypt, China, and so many more places. In many of them was the same man, that Mihael guessed for a fond-of-travels ancestor. He took a look at the chest itself, full of traveling material. An old camera, some clothes, and souvenirs from distant countries. His eyes radiated with joy and he jumped happily in the memories of this man. 

While Thomas had left Mihael to his travels, he went back to where he had found the gun and kept searching. It took him a bit more time to find something as interesting: a dark timber buffet and, inside, an impressive collection of dolls.

But by that time, it was already time for dinner.


End file.
